


Unexpected Encounters

by Hexenjäger (Rodarolla2)



Category: Bourne Legacy (2012), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), S.W.A.T. (2003), The Avengers (2012), The Hurt Locker (2008)
Genre: Clint Barton is Aaron Cross, Clint Barton is Brian Gamble, Clint Barton is William Brandt, Clint Barton is William James, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-18
Updated: 2013-07-18
Packaged: 2017-12-20 15:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/888638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodarolla2/pseuds/Hexenj%C3%A4ger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four times JT Sanborn unexpectedly encountered William James.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Encounters

**1\. Brian Gamble**

 

The first time JT Sanborn encountered William James after Iraq, was in LA. He had just been assigned to a SWAT team when he heard a voice that he never could forget. JT spun around and saw a man in a LAPD uniform, like himself, talking with another uniformed man. What made the guy special was, JT Sanborn could never forget this man's voice, never forget his baby face, never forget his bluer than blue eyes, never forget what the presense of the man felt like. The man turned, caught his eye, and grinned. Just like back in Iraq. He pulled the other man behind him as he walked over to JT. 

 

"Hey, Sanborn. Long time no see." He grinned.

 

"Didn't think you'd stop signing up for tours." JT managed, still shocked at his discovery of the man.

 

"Figured I'd stop scaring the shit outta Jim while I was off disarming bombs." He shrugged. "Decided I'd scare the shit outta him by being a cop."

 

"Difference is, Jim is beside you." The other man rolled his eyes.

 

"True." James grinned. "So, LAPD huh? Want to be SWAT?"

 

"Just got assigned to SWAT." JT replied.

 

"Cool. Watch for Fuller he is an unbridled asshole." James grinned. "Good luck to you. Catch you later, Sanborn." James and Jim walked off, Jim's arm snaking around James waist. Jim leaned down and pecked James's lips. JT wondered about his wife. Was there even a wife to begin with? Was that wife this Jim?

 

 

**2\. William Brandt**

 

The second time JT unexpectedly encountered William James, was in Sydney, Australia. He was on his honeymoon with his longtime girlfriend, now wife, Amanda. Amanda was their hotel suite while he was out on an early morning run. He had just stopped for a bottle of water when he saw him. Dressed in an expensive looking suit, running after a guy, wanted by three different countries guy, with a pistol in hand. JT decided to help James by tripping him. The wanted bastard crashed hard. James easily caught up. He tried to cuff the guy, but he landed a solid punch to James's jaw. When he tried to run again, JT didn't think, he acted, subduing the bastard long enough for James to cuff him and then haul him to his feet. James looked the same, baby face, bluer than blue eyes, same goldenish blonde hair, though this time, the eyes were hard, the presense gave off an air of controlled power, an animal waiting to strike.

 

"Fancy meeting you again." He said by way of greeting, tilting his head slightly.

 

"You too. Haven't seen you around LA lately." JT replied.

 

"Brian Gamble doesn't exist anymore. He was killed the night Alex Montel escaped from federal custody and was recaptured." James said flatly.

 

"That why Street is so different than he was?" JT asked.

 

"I'm sure a multitude of things changed him, all centered around Brian Gamble. Guilt for killing him, sadness that he'll never see him again, guilt for that if he just told him that he never ratted him out none of what happened would've happened, guilt that if he had gone with him then maybe Brian Gamble woudn't have gone down the path he had, many things probably contributed to his current state." James said, far more calm and devoid of emotion than JT ever heard.

 

"Who are you now, then?" JT said glancing at the bastard struggling in James's grip. "Bounty hunter?"

 

"I am William Brandt, if I told you what I am, then you would be a target or I would have to kill you." He replied. "I have to go."

 

"See ya." JT muttered as James walked away. A dark haired man and woman appeared by his side. The woman took the man away and the other man pecked James's lips. It seems that Jim was done. He vaguely wondered if he had been revived as a cyborg that looked completely human. No, he was human as he just chuckled and shook his head at something the dark haired man said. 

 

 

**3\. Aaron Cross**

 

The third time JT met William James, was in the Bahamas. He and Amanda were taking their little adopted angel on her first cruise. They were at the beach while he went to go see how safe one of the places they wanted to go were. He was leaning against a wall, towards the edge of the crowd, getting ready to go back to his family when he saw him. Blue eyes met his and a deer caught in headlights expression, before being schooled into a hard, emotionless mask. JT followed him when he ran, or disappeared into the crowd. He lost him in an alley.

 

"I don't want to shoot you. Just forget you ever saw me here, go back to your family." A cold barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his head.

 

"Who are you now, James?" JT asked. "Are you done with that other guy, like with Jim?" There was a pause after the gun was removed.

 

"Ethan is dead. Died the same way William Brandt did. In an explosion of a roadside IED. As for my name, look on the news. Can't miss it." The presense, changed to a fugitive's one, a killer's not caring anymore one, a man's with no soul left one, a machine's one, left. James must have been humiliated, losing someone he cared about to the thing he dealt with daily, not even noticing it, even. Adding insult to injury. He went back to his family. Late that night as he turned on the news, he saw what James meant. His picture was on there. A call for any information on the dangerous government rogue, Aaron Cross, that could lead to his apprehension. He was a gentically altered project of the Outcome, Treadstone, and Blackbriar programs, shut down because of Jason Bourne. He wondered if that was truely who William James was, a wolf among sheep, a government project. It was far more likely that William Brandt and Aaron Cross were the same, as he could not see how Brian Gamble was either, or William James, Brian Gamble and William James were far more likely one and the same, than all four as one and the same.

 

 

**4\. Clint Barton**

 

 

The fourth time JT saw William James, was in New York. Manhattan, to be exact. It was after aliens invaded. He had helped people escape. He had remembered the Avengers coming, the hope swelled in his heart that all would turn out okay when Iron Man had flown onto the scene, the pride in his country and that America would defeat the invaders as they had done time and time again when Captain America had ran onto the street where he was defending a few kids from the aliens, the shere glee when Thor had stopped those giant whale creatures, and amazement when the Hulk proved more than a mindless beast of rage when it had beaten the madman resposible. He was walking back to where his family was when he saw him, wiping the blood and tears from a teenage girl that he recogized his wife teaching how to play the piano. In a black suit, arm guards, a quiver on his back, and a bow in the hands of the girl. He saw the familiar blonde, felt a presence like William James had had. One he didn't realize he missed after the hard, unforgiving ones of Aaron Cross and William Brandt, though the killer aspect was still there, other part were added, a carefree, childish side that was never grown out of, a calculating mastermind, a man smarter than his own good, and the insanity factor was racked up alot, but also very severely decreased at the same time. He turned slightly to reguard him.

 

"Do you know where her family is?" He asked.

 

"No, but I know where she can go until they're found." JT replied, wondering just what the hell Aaron Cross was doing her in the open like this.

 

"Hi, Mr. Sanborn." She smiled at him.

 

"Hey, April." JT replied. He helped her up and James was gone. He brought her to his family and then went to see what he could do to help the rescue and relief teams. When he was taking a break a few hours later, he saw him again, walking to a small redhead. She wrapped her arms around him as he buried his face in her shoulder.

 

"It's not your fault, Clint. There was nothing you could do." She murmered. He muttered something. He looked up. "How's your back?"

 

"Hurts like hell. Actually going to SHIELD doctors this time." He chuckled.

 

"No, they will not be happy to see you, Doctor Banner has already said that he wants to check out your health, for traces of the Tessaract's radiation. He'll fix you up then." She said.

 

"Okay..." James sighed. "I'm just so exhausted... physically... mentally... hell, emotionally... didn't think that was possible."

 

"You'll be fine, brother, you will be fine." She smiled. JT wondered if she was really his sister.

 

"I hope you're right, Tasha... Sometimes I wish I was still William James or Brian Gamble... Those were so simple and not so caught up in the shit that the spies go through daily..." James sighed. JT wondered what he meant by that.

 

"You were a spy as Brian Gamble, but no one knew that except me and Phil, same as William James, except it was only Phil that knew that." She pointed out. Anger suddenly flared as JT realised he had been lied to for years now.

 

"It's not the same Tasha! Brian Gamble and William James... They were what I would've turned out to be if my parents hadn't of abused me for the first six years of my life, if Barney hadn't have picked up where they left off when they 'kicked the bucket', if Barney didn't drag me to the circus with him where I was abused more by my mentors, if I hadn't have nearly been killed by the drunk Swordsman for trying to do the right thing, if I hadn't have had to find someway to eat as an eleven year old kid and a french bastard named Montel which truelly caused Jim to break hadn't have wanted a kid to die while trying to assassinate a guy he didn't like, if I never took the job, if I never killed the bastard, if I hadn't have gone down that path, if I had just went back to the fucking orphanage, if I hadn't killed my parents when I found out they were alive and about to take over the world, if I had just watched as the Impossible Mission Force Agent Ethan fucking Hunt did his first job of killing my parents, I would really be like William James and Brian Gamble!" James cried. "It's not the fucking same!"

 

"Perhaps... maybe SHIELD would've still picked you up. Your talents, skills, abilities, they are in your genes you would've found a way to exploit those and SHIELD would've picked those up. Things might have turned out differently, but as you are fond of saying, the arrow has been loosed and you can't take the shot back." Tasha said. "You were always destined for greatness, Clint, and what happened in your life was to shapen you, to prepare you for what you will face, because I don't think the universe is done with you yet. Maybe, in the future, you might have to assemble a team like the Avengers, maybe the only people you trust to have your six would be Street and Sanborn. Maybe you have to lead them and maybe even others, to victory stopping a madman that surpassed Loki and we couldn't stop him because of what seem so fond of reminding yourself, we were not fully human. Perhaps Captain's superserum set off alarms and he was captured, The Hulk was no match for whatever this bastard had, Thor as well, Iron Man couldn't be matched with his machines, even my genetic alterations wouldn't be a match. You, on the other hand, are a normal being with extroadinary capabilities that people will most of the time write off or see you as the weak link, when you have faced that all your life, being written off and viewed as weak. You show them the error in underestimating you. You were molded by diliberate actions and events, Clinton Francis Barton, do not for one moment doubt yourself." Tasha said. JT suddenly realised why he had been lied to, a mission to protect and maybe even mark potential allies. He could live with that. She muttered something he didn't understand and walked off. JT went to help more people. He was trying to move a pile of rubble when a voice startled him.

 

"Can't seem to lose you, can I?" James chuckled. It sounded hollow.

 

"Guess not. Or maybe it's I can't seem to lose you." JT replied. "So, you're not William James, William Brandt, Brian Gamble, or Aaron Cross, who are you now?"

 

"The guy I was born as, Clint Barton." James said. He started to push the rock JT was trying to move. Under the combined forces, it slid out of the way. "Also, you might hear me refered to as Hawkeye on the news and by others."

 

"Avenger, right, or the assassin?" JT asked, knowing it would be the Avenger and not assassin.

 

"Both." James smiled ruefully.

 

"You're really the assassin Hawkeye?" JT asked in disbelief.

 

"Yeah." James said.

 

"AGENT HAWKEYE!" A loud voice called.

 

"Well, shit, country's calling. Gotta go." James shook his head.

 

"Captain America?" JT snickered.

 

"Yep." James waved as he walked away. "Maybe one day we can stop dancing 'round each other and actually stop this shit." He tossed over his shoulder. In a low voice that JT was sure he wasn't supposed to hear, he added. "Maybe I can explain to Jim everything that happened and why too."


End file.
